Technology within Organizations

Computers have been an incredible tool to allow organizations to grow quicker and cheaper than ever before possible. Before computers, when the number of people grew significantly in an organization there had to be an increase in management. However, with computers a much smaller management team can keep track of an ever increasing number of people. This has allowed for organizations to act much bigger than they really are. An organization that used to think that they could never be a worldwide organization can now easily expand without over dramatically increasing their costs. What a great thing technology is. There are new and exciting possibilities on the horizon. What we never thought possible could easily become possible. All we can do is be ready for change and to use the technology that is currently available.

Gaming

There are those who love to golf, there are those who love to hike, and there are those who love to game. Those who love to play computer games see no difference between it and any other form of recreation. They see it as a way to relax and escape the hassles of everyday life. Although it is possible to golf excessively, hike excessively, or do any recreational activity too much, computer games have a tendency to be more captivating. If gaming is something that you enjoy doing, it is an activity that needs to be watched closely. It is easy to slip into excessive gaming and to ignore real life. Computer games aren’t as stressful as real life, but can be very rewarding, so why not just play them all the time and not have to worry about real life? That is pattern of thought that can slowly develop until you find yourself always playing computer games. Games are not bad within themselves, but limits must be set. They can be a great way to release stress, but they should not distract from real life responsibility.

The Internet: the Good and the Bad.

The Internet is a great source of information. It has given power to the people to express themselves in ways that were never possible before. Information that used to be hard to come by is now readily available. This newfound wealth of information has the potential to be a great benefit to the world. However, there are some that wish to use the Internet for malicious purposes. The freedom of the Internet allows the sharing of any type of information and does so nearly instantly. In the same way that good information is readily available, harmful information is also easy to come by. We need to watch ourselves as we use the Internet. We need to understand what information is good and what information is bad. A filter can help protect us, but education is far more important. We must teach our children what information is bad and help them to know what to do if they stumble into more hostile areas of the Internet. Only by doing this can our children and ourselves be safe on the Internet.

The World Is Flat

Even though I am not very old, I did grow up through the nineties. I remember going from not owning a computer, to having one with DOS, then Windows 3.1, and finally we got one with Windows 98 and the Internet. Obviously, being so young, I took for granted all of these advances. As I look at all the technology that exists today, and think about what didn’t exist when I was a kid, I feel like I was born in the dark ages. The level of technological advancement in the past 20 years is astounding. If all of this is amazing to me, how do my grandparents feel? Has there ever been a time in history where so much has changed in so little a time?

All of these technological advancements did not stay in the United States. The entire world quickly adopted them. When that happened, the world became a much smaller place. The way business was done completely changed. What was once thought of as a local job soon became a job that was done in India. People had to adapt to this changing global market or become unemployed. This is still true today. We all need to learn to be adaptable or one day we may find ourselves outsourced. Still, all of these changes have so far been a great blessing to the world. Despite the changes in the jobs that are available in America, Americans are still employed and the rate of technological advancement continues to grow.

Although I grew up while these technologies were also growing up, my experiences with technology are going to be very different from next generation. I remember when the technology did not exist. Children born now are growing up with all of this technology around them. They way that they interact with the world is very different than from the way I interacted with the world as a youth. Disregarding any arguments about whether this constant connection to the rest of the world is healthy for them, by growing up with a globally connected mind set, they will be very well prepared to be great businesspeople in the new global market. I am excited to see what will come about in the next 40 years.

Open-Source vs. Closed-Source

Open-source software is an incredible phenomenon in the computing world. From hobbyist programmers’ free time, many complex programs have been developed. Not only have they been developed, but they have been developed very quickly. Such programs seem a miracle when viewed from a closed-source perspective. Despite the miracles of open-source software, it is not the magic bullet for all computer software needs. There is no monetary gain for an open-source project. It cannot be sold because everybody can build it. This monetary drive is what will keep closed-source projects alive. Although development is not as clean or quick as an open-source project, one fact still remains at the end of the day; the closed-source group will have made money and the open-source group will have not. In spite of there being some great software from the open-source community, the open-source mind set will never completely displace closed-source monetary draw.

Technology and Copyright Law

The copyright laws of America have been around for many years. When they were created the concept of digital media did not exist. Technological advancements have changed the way Americans consume digital media and pose a significant challenge for those wishing to enforce their copyrights. Consumers want the ability to use the media that they purchase for whatever legitimate personal uses that can. The producers of the media fear that having such an open media will allow for piracy to occur too easily. As a result of these two opposing mindsets, America has two laws which often contradict each other; the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and Fair Use. There seems to be no simple solution to this issue. However, much of the problem appears to rise from the way the market is currently demanding media and the refusal by the producers to offer it in such a way. I feel that if the producers were to accept the changing market and offer their media at reasonable prices in the digital format that users want, then buyers would not need to pirate it to get it in the format they want.

Technology in our Cars

Technological advancements in the automotive industry have historically been focused on either the performance or the safety of the car. In general, tasks that the driver would normally perform have been left to the driver. Several groups, including a group of Stanford graduate students, are looking to change that. The Stanford group of students is making a car that can drive itself. Although many other groups have succeeded at this before, their cars were not able to navigate complex courses at any substantial speed. In contrast, the Stanford group is looking at making their Audi TTS autonomously navigate Pikes Peak at near race speeds. Racing Pikes Peak is no simple task. Pikes Peak is a complex race course that challenges even the best professional race car drivers. If their car succeeds to drive such a complex course with no driver, what else will their car be able to do in the future? The future of how we transport ourselves could change dramatically.

Women in Computing

When a student begins their college career, they must decide what it is they enjoy doing. It really is that simple to do. There are no majors that hang up signs that say "no girls allowed," nor are there any that say "no boys allowed." However, there are some majors that are very polar in terms of gender. Perhaps the American culture has raised us to believe that some majors are more suited for one gender or another. This may rightly be the case, or may play a significant role. Yet when it is time to decide what major to choose one must ask themselves, "Do I enjoy doing this?" If the answer is yes, then gender biases should not stop them. I am not experienced enough to say if there truly is any gender discrimination in these majors. It seems to me that perhaps the real issue may be that one gender, for whatever the reason, simply might not enjoy that type of work.

360-Degree Display

It is fun to watch technology strive to create the future technologies imagined in the science-fiction of the 1980's. Star Wars, Star Trek and many other science-fiction shows demonstrated many technologies that seemed great, but that were well out of reach for the technology of the day. Many of these technologies are starting to be developed. The 3-D holograms of the science-fiction world have started to be developed. Sony has unveiled the first display that has a 360 degree viewing angle in which you can see an object in full 3-D. Unlike other attempts at 3-D displays, with this display there is no need to wear special glasses to see the image. Although a device like this may not be the best type of screen to place in the movie theater, it has the potential to be useful in many other situations.

How Secure is Technology?

Crime has been a part of all written history. There has always been somebody who could not be trusted. However, with the introduction of the computer the number of ways in which criminals can accomplish their malicious intentions have dramatically increased. Previously, criminals had to risk actually going someplace to do whatever it is they wanted to do; they ran the risk of being seen and caught. With a computer and the Internet they no longer have to leave their home. There is a great deal of anonymity on the Internet. This was especially problematic during the early development of the Internet where the network was based largely on trust. There were relatively few security measures taken to secure a computer attached to the Internet. This allowed criminals to get access to great amounts of information fairly easily and with little risk of getting caught.

Since those early days of the Internet, many things have changed. People started to realize that there was a great risk in giving free access to a computer attached to the Internet. Passwords became stronger, and encryption began being used when sending and receiving sensitive data. Communities of people that were concerned with computer security formed, and they started publishing the problems they were finding. This brought great awareness to the problems that existed.

With the rise of each new technology, we should always be concerned with the security of our sensitive data. However, as a whole, the world has become aware that great attention needs to be given to making new technologies secure. This does not mean that their efforts are perfect. Many security holes still exist in new and existing technologies. With that in mind, perfect security is not what we desire. Perfect security greatly reduces the usability of anything. Think of what it would take to make your house perfectly secure. It would quickly become a very hard place to live in. The same is true of technologies. There will always be some risk of criminal activity, but is that risk great enough to overshadow the benefits gained by the technology? In the past, perhaps this was the case. Today, the benefits are great and the risk is ever diminishing.

The Future of Batteries

With the ever-increasing demand for rechargeable portable energy there has been an increasing push for new technology to improve conventional batteries. Conventional batteries take a relatively long time to charge and can be charged only relatively small number of times. Ultra capacitors could be the battery of the future. Capacitors, by their nature, charge in seconds and do not suffer any of the longevity issues that conventional batteries suffer from (they can be charged hundreds of thousands of times). There is, however, still research that needs to be done. These ultra capacitors currently provide only 1/25^th of the power that conventional batteries provide. New manufacturing techniques show promise in closing this gap within the next few years. One of the main applications for this type of battery would be electric cars. Electric cars never became very popular; one reason was that on long trips when the car needed to be recharged it took hours to do so. With these batteries that problem is solved. The car could be charged at a filling station in the same amount of time, and in the same fashion, as a car being filled with gasoline.

Genealogy Work and Computers

Before the 1990s genealogy work was tedious and limited to a select few who had access to hard copies of historical documents. There was vast amounts of information available in documents scattered around the globe, but no easy access to much of it. The rise of the internet and the common place of personal computers in nearly every household changed that. Thus everybody who had a computer could access millions of genealogical records and then share the information that they had gleaned from those records to the world. This ease of access caused an explosion in the number of people who are actively doing genealogical work. Technology has affected everyones life in many ways, some good, some bad; however, it has been a blessing to genealogical work.

Wireless Electricity

A concept that Nikola Tesla developed over a century ago may be making its way into the mainstream, wireless energy. Sending electricity through the air is astonishing but may actually be available on a large scale in the near future according WiTricity. At first I thought this to be rather far-fetched; however, I then realized my toothbrush at home used similar technology albeit on a much smaller scale than WiTricity is proposing. Think of the possibility of being able to send large amounts of electricity over long distances. The world as we know it would truly change, everything from the landscape (no more power lines) to what it looks like behind your computer desk. Plugging things in to charge, household electronics needing to be plugged in or have batteries, would all be a thing of the past. Think of what kids will say in 40 years, if this becomes a reality, when you pull out an old power cord and tell them you had to plug in your laptop. I can hear them laughing now.

Is technology a blessing or a curse?

In reading this article by Neil Postman, I pondered about the relatively negative view on technology that is prominent in the article. Although we may not be able to anticipate all the negative things that a new technology will bring, I feel that it would be rather anti-productive to artificially limit the growth and expansion of technology over fear of the unknown. If we instead focus on the benefits of what a new technology may bring we will be able to use technology to assist mankind instead of letting the ever-present negativity rule our lives. As Neil Postman stressed that there will always be negative effects of technology I feel that instead the positive effects that technologies offer far outweigh the negative. Let us focus on the positives and use technology to bring about much good in the world.

Welcome to the Saunders Blog